Utter vs Utterly

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

I thought that the speech was utter/utterly rubbish.

I looked up the dictionary rubbish isn’t an adj, so I should chose utter. However, as I was surfing the internet, I found out that many people use utterly rubbish. Which is the correct one? Thanks in advanced

2

utterly rubbish.

3

It should be
utter rubbish.

4

I wonder Bev, if you could read it like, “The speech was utterly (= completely) rubbish (= useless)”?

5

Not really:
“The speech was utter rubbish.” (noun)
“The speech was utterly appalling.” (adjective)

6

That version isn’t really acceptable. Consider a similar example: The speech was utter nonsense - not ‘utterly nonsense’.

Alan

7

Yes, I was utterly mistaken, for ‘‘utterly’’ can take only an adjective. As ‘rubbish’ is a noun, utter rubbish is correct. It sounds like an adjective, though.